NQR: QR code payments in Nigeria
How do I get an NQR code for my business?
You get an NQR code from your bank, not from a QR generator. You give the bank the merchant details it asks for, it profiles you on the NIBSS NQR portal and creates a sub-merchant account, and the code is generated against that account. NIBSS states there is no onboarding fee and no infrastructure cost to the merchant.
What is NQR, and who runs it?
NQR is Nigeria's national QR payment standard, operated by NIBSS on behalf of the banking industry. It is built on the EMV QR Code Specification, which is the same international format most national QR schemes use, and it is account based rather than card based: the money moves between bank accounts rather than over card rails.
The reason a single national scheme exists at all is the problem it was created to end. Before it, a shop wanting to accept scan payments had to decide whose code to display, and a customer with the wrong app had to download another one at the counter. A shared standard means the code on the counter is readable by any participating bank's app, which is worth more to a small trader than any individual feature.
What the CBN framework actually permits you to display
The CBN framework for QR code payments, issued on 13 January 2021, requires QR payments in Nigeria to use the EMV QR Code Specification and says a merchant electing to be paid by QR may display only QR codes approved for use in Nigeria. It also requires the acquirer to deliver the value of each transaction to the merchant within a day.
That one sentence about approved codes is the part worth reading twice, because it draws a line straight through what a QR code generator can honestly offer a Nigerian business. Generating a square that looks like a payment code is trivial. Displaying it at your till as a way to be paid is not a technical question at all, it is a question about whether the scheme behind it is approved, and the answer for anything you made yourself is no.
The framework is published by the Central Bank as a PDF on cbn.gov.ng, and it is short enough to read in a sitting. If you are about to print anything that invites a payment, read it rather than a summary, including this one.
Static or dynamic, and the ten minutes that decide it
A static NQR code is reusable and printable, so it suits a counter, a table tent or a shopfront where the amount changes every time. A dynamic NQR code is generated through an API for one transaction and expires after ten minutes, which is what makes it suitable for a screen at checkout and completely unsuitable for anything printed.
Ten minutes is a short window and it is the number to hold on to, because the instinct with any QR code is to print it once and forget it. A dynamic code printed on a receipt or a flyer is dead before the customer reaches the door, and the failure is silent: the code scans perfectly and the app says the payment could not be found, which reads to everyone standing there as the shop's fault.
What it costs, and why this page does not print a number
NIBSS says merchant onboarding carries no fee and no infrastructure cost, and that transactions credit the merchant's bank account instantly. What it does not publish is the transaction pricing: its documentation refers that to a pricing compendium that is not a public document, and the split between the parties is set there.
So the honest answer to "what does NQR cost per transaction" is that your bank will tell you and we will not guess. A figure invented on a page like this one is the kind of thing a trader budgets around, and being confidently wrong about somebody's margin is worse than saying we do not know.
The code beside the payment code
A QR code you generate yourself cannot take a payment in Nigeria, but it is the right tool for everything around one: a menu, a price list, a WhatsApp catalogue, a review link, a delivery form. Those live on your own web address, they can be re-pointed after printing, and they carry no regulatory weight at all because no money moves through them.
The practical mistake is printing both on one sign with no labels. Two black squares an inch apart are indistinguishable to a customer, so half of them scan the menu when they meant to pay, and the queue stops. Label them in words, not icons, and put real space between them. If you only have room for one, it is the payment code, every time.
The other half of that decision is size, because a code that fails to scan at a counter costs a sale rather than a click. Our size calculator does the arithmetic from the distance people actually stand, and the scan-failure guide covers the causes in the order they actually occur.
Questions
The things people ask before they commit something to paper.
Can I generate an NQR code myself?
No. An NQR code is issued by a bank or a licensed payment service provider after they have onboarded you as a merchant, and the CBN framework says a merchant may display only QR codes approved for use in Nigeria. A code you draw in a design tool is a picture of a payment, and a picture will not credit your account.
How long does an NQR code last?
It depends which kind you were issued. A static NQR code is reusable and meant to be printed, so it can sit on a counter indefinitely. A dynamic one is generated through an API for a specific transaction and expires after ten minutes, which is why it belongs on a screen and never on a sticker.
How fast do I get the money?
NIBSS describes instant value to the merchant bank account, and the CBN framework separately requires the acquirer to deliver the value of each QR transaction to the merchant within a day of the transaction. Those are two different promises, one commercial and one regulatory, and the regulatory one is the floor.
Does NQR replace bank transfers for small businesses?
It is aimed at the same moment a transfer is used for now, a customer at a counter paying without cash, but with the account number and the amount already filled in rather than typed. Whether it replaces anything depends on which apps your customers actually carry, which is a question about your street rather than about the standard.
What is the difference between NQR and the QR code on my flyer?
One is a payment instruction your bank issued, the other is a web address you own. They look identical printed, which is exactly the problem: put them side by side without labels and a customer will scan the wrong one, then blame you rather than the sign.